​Google Maps marks Crimea as Russia…but only in Russia

Crimea as shown by Google Maps’ Russian service. The border with Ukraine shown in solid line reserved for borders between sovereign countries. (image from Google Maps)

Crimea is now part of Russia, according to the Russian version of Google’s map service. The change was made to reflect in the latest update and did not affect how the online giant presents the peninsula to the rest of the world.

“The Google Maps team is doing its best to objectively mark
disputed regions and landmarks. In relevant cases the borders of
disputed areas are marked in a special way. In countries where we
have a localized version of our service, we follow local laws on
representing borders and use of landmark names,” Svetlana
Anurova of Google Russia told ITAR-TASS.

Interestingly, the change has so far only affected the type of
line used to show the border, but not street addresses in Crimea.
For instance, Google Maps Russia marks the Crimean capital as
“Simferopol, Crimea, Ukraine.”

Google’s approach to Crimea is similar to how it deals with many
territorial disputes around the world, showing different names
and borderlines to users in different countries.

This includes other disputes involving Russia, particularly the
status of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, which are recognized as
sovereign states by Moscow and some other nations, but are
considered parts of Georgia by the West.

The Crimean change is similar to how Yandex, a Russian
counterpart of Google, which has a map service of its own, dealt
with the Crimean situation.

It marked the peninsula as Russian for Russian users and
Ukrainian for Ukrainian users. Localized versions of Yandex Maps
show Crimea as either Russian or Ukrainian territory, depending
on whether a respective government recognized Crimean transition
into Russia.

The international version sides with Moscow’s point of view.

The Russian Federation has been treating Crimea as a constituent
part since March 21, when all paperwork needed for Crimean
accession was completed.

It followed a referendum in Crimea which showed overwhelming
support from the local population for breaking from Ukraine and
seeking a place within Russia. The transition remains disputed by
many countries.